Skip to content
Register

Renewal strategy: how far ahead do you prepay?

VPS Hosting by marcus_qc 22 replies 2.5K views
marcus_qc

Member OP

12 #1

Hey folks! Gonna keep this super stoked and simple How far ahead do you prepay for your vps? I'm talking renewal strategy here. Monthly? Yearly? I used to do yearly everywhere like a dummy then InterServer had a hiccup and I was locked in. Now I'm monthly for anything under 2 years old, yearly only for the ogs. Curious what you all do. Mistakes were made, lessons learned, sharing so you don't have to.

42U and still growing
minh1987

Member

#2

In my country, hard to get credit card with auto-renew. So I prepay yearly when provider is old, monthly when new. One question: @marcus_qc you track provider age yourself or use some database? In my country many fake "since 2010" on website.

phở at 3AM, deploy at 4
svendeal

Member

Deal Sniper

#3

Okay okay okay

I prepay five year with GreenCloudVPS in 2021. Very cheap, very good deal. Now 2026 still working, very happy. Can you help me is this normal or I just lucky? My friend say I very crazy but I win. Ser-va still up, network very fast. Okay okay.

world record: 4min Arch install
admin

Administrator

Administrator

#4

Provider age verification is a common concern. We have seen multiple cases of backdated founding years in this industry.

For what it is worth, our official guidance:

  • New provider (under 12 months): monthly only
  • Established (1-3 years): quarterly or semi-annual
  • Mature (3+ years with public track record): annual if the discount justifies it

Five year prepays have historically been a coin flip. Some of you won. Many did not.

We do not maintain a database, but public company registries and WHOIS history are your friends. A provider unwilling to state their legal entity name is a provider to avoid.

Stay safe out there. — Admin

sudo make me a sandwich
svendeal

Member

Deal Sniper

#5

I don't trust any "since" date without checking registry myself

world record: 4min Arch install
MA

Member

#6

Yearly for Hetzner, monthly for anything else. Their billing is in EUR which is annoying with my bank but the hardware is solid enough that I stopped caring.

marcus_qc

Member OP

#7

@

matt30 said:
Hetzner
See that's the thing, Hetzner's been around forever but they're not on my list because their EU locations don't work for my Montreal clients. Do you eat the conversion fee or use TransferWise or something?

42U and still growing
Emre10

Member

4 #8

In Turkey the lira moves so fast that prepaying yearly is actually a currency hedge. I locked in Hetzner at a rate that would cost me 40% more today. The risk is the provider, the reward is not watching my money evaporate.

minh1987

Member

#9

@

Emre10 said:
Currency hedge
Same problem here with VND but opposite direction. Provider prices in USD, my income in local currency. Yearly prepay means I gamble twice: provider survival AND exchange rate. Monthly gives me flexibility.

phở at 3AM, deploy at 4
IT

Member

#10

I run everything on monthly. Lost money on a yearly with a French provider that looked solid, turned out they were reselling OVH and got their account terminated. Three months left, no refund. Never again.

Post a reply

You need an account to reply. Log in or register to join the conversation.

Post reply Preview Save draft